CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – As a junior at Clarksville Academy, Lexie Calzaretta has already committed to play soccer for the Stetson University Hatters when she graduates. However, instead of kicking a soccer ball this fall, Calzaretta will be kicking field goals.
A Raleigh, NC, native, Calzaretta started playing soccer when she was around 2 years old. Her dad, mom and uncle all had coaching experience, so she was always around the game. Playing club soccer has been the name of the game for Lexi, which ultimately led to her getting a call from Stetson University on the first official day of recruiting, when they offered her a spot on the Hatter squad.
“To be honest it was kind of overwhelming,” said Calzaretta. “It was a lot of emotions, especially as a 16-year-old, I wasn’t expecting that. I loved their camp, and I knew that if I get a call from them, I was going to be 100% in, and I wanted to commit.”
Calzaretta had played on the Clarksville Academy girls’ soccer team for the past two years. However, this fall, she’s put on pads instead of a kit and has decided to play football for Cougars head coach Steadman Bell.
The junior student-athlete joined the football team to serve as Clarksville Academy’s placekicker and it just so happened on Friday night, Calzaretta scored her first points of the season against Friendship Christian after a successful point after attempt.
While she has wasted no time making the transition, Calzaretta said this decision was one of the hardest of her young career.
“I love playing high school (soccer), but I realized my growth was coming more from club and other types of soccer,” Calzaretta said. “It’s important to me that now that Stetson has invested in me, I needed to do what was going to help me grow and prepare to make an impact as soon as I get to Stetson. My parents always told me if you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not growing, and being on the football team is going to prepare me for the college level.”
No one’s happier that she’s playing football in the fall than Steadman Bell, who’s entering year two as the head man for the Cougars. Bell told Clarksville Now he has previously coached a female kicker when he was with Nashville Christian.
“She’s a smart, tough and a coachable student athlete here at Clarksville Academy,” said Bell. “With Lexi having a younger sister – who is a kicker for our middle school football team and really looks up to Lexi – she has helped open the door for young kids to look up to her and see the things she has accomplished, and will continue to accomplish, throughout her athletic/academic career. We are proud of Lexi as a whole, and we’re excited to have her on the team and to help score some points for us this season.”
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Paving the way
A big influence on Lexie’s career has been her private coach, Tony Sonnabend, who is a former professional soccer player and a licensed coach/trainer from England. Tony has been coaching for 30 years and said he hasn’t seen a player like Calzaertta. He thinks she could be designing the new blueprint for soccer athletes.
“‘I think it is both an incredibly brave and mature decision to sit out her soccer season at CA. It is also a decision I fully support,” Sonnabend said. “In 30 years of coaching, I have rarely met a girl with so much drive, passion and single-minded determination to succeed. Perhaps she will provide a new blueprint on how and what is now perhaps the best pathway into high level college soccer in the future. Time will tell.”
Throughout this process, Calzaretta has stayed true to one thing: being different.
“I want to do things that are new, that are different,” she said. “Being a female, as athletes I think sometimes we’re not taken seriously. Mentally, that can be draining. I have the opportunity to start a movement, and want to make an impact on younger girls, to show them it’s OK to step out of your comfort zone. I don’t want to be like everybody else.”
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